Not another 'how to play chess' page, surely? Well, all the ones I looked
at I didn't like, for some reason: some had no chess symbols, and some only
had the moves, and... well, here's another not to like.

Chess one of the oldest known games, played for more than a thousand years
in India, Arab countries, Spain and Russia, and is the one with the most
books written about it. If you like logical puzzles, if you like neat
patterns, if you like thinking up interesting ideas, or if you just like
exciting games against your friends, you might well like chess.

The aim of the game is to take your opponent's King. But you will find it
easier if you take off some of your opponent's pieces first!

Taking a piece in chess works like this:

The White Rook can move to c5, d5 or e5 (
). It cannot move to g5 or h5 ( ). But it
can capture the Black Bishop on f5. The Bishop is
removed from the board and the Rook stands in its place.

The White Rook in the next diagram can also take a Bishop on f5, but might
not want to!

The Knight defends the Bishop.

If White captured the Bishop, the Black Knight would capture the White
Rook on f5. White would have swapped a Rook for a Bishop. The chess term for
swapping is exchanging . Is it a good swap? Well, a
Rook is worth 5 Pawns, and a Bishop only 3, so White would lose the
equivalent of 2 Pawns.

All the pieces capture the same way that they move except Pawns. Pawns
move one square forwards, but capture diagonally.

The White Pawn on b3 can move to b4 [ ],
but it can capture on a4 or c4 [ ].

The fact that Pawns can move two squares on their first move might mean
you miss out on a chance to take an opponent's Pawn. The White Pawn on d5
night be hoping to take the Black Pawn on e7. But if it moves to e5, then the
White Pawn will miss out! To give your brave advanced Pawns a chance of
taking opponent's Pawns, there is a special rule invented. If an opponent's
Pawn, which has not yet moved, tries to dodge past an advanced Pawn on the
fifth rank by moving two squares, the advanced Pawn is allowed to pretend
that the opponent's Pawn moved just one square. Let's see this in
pictures:

Black to move. The Black Pawn on e7
jumps past the White Pawn on d5 to reach e5 [].

If the Black Pawn had only moved one square, to e6 [], White could have taken it.

White says, "I'll take that in passing!"

The Black Pawn vanishes from the board.

We actually use the French phrase, en passant

You can do this only on the move after an opponent's Pawn has by-passed
one of yours by moving two squares. Leave it a move, and you lose the
chance!

There's one more special move to learn, called
castling . This is well worth using in your games.
The idea is to get the King into safety and get the Rook into play quickly,
and speeds up the game a lot.

You move the King two squares towards the Rook, and hop the Rook over the
King to land beside it. This counts as only one move.

The King is safely tucked away, and the Rook can join in the fight. Great!
And you can do this on either side:

You are allowed to do this if:

Neither the King nor the Rook has moved

The King is not in check, does not move into check, and does not hop
over checked square.

Chess used to be quite a slow game, and was speeded up by new rules which
allowed Pawn promotion, a two-square jump by Pawns on their first move, and
castling.

What's going on here? The Black King can be taken by the White Rook.
Because the game will end if the King is taken, Black must on the next move,
get out of this attack. If a piece attacks a King, the King is said to be in
check , and you must get out of check, if you can.
You must not move into check.

This poor Black King is in check and cannot get out of check. The King
will be taken next move, and we say this is
checkmate , and White wins the game. The King is
never actually taken: checkmate is the end of the game.

If you attack the opponent's King directly with a piece, it is polite to
say "check", just in case they haven't noticed.

If it was White's move here, White would play the Queen into g7 and cry,
"checkmate!".

And if it was Black's move... but Black has no move! Only the Black King
can move, and all the squares that the King could move to are attacked. So,
Black cannot move into check, although it is Black's turn. We call this
stalemate , and it is the end of the game, and it
is a draw.

You can also have a draw in chess:

1. if neither side has enough material to force checkmate, the game is
drawn (bare King vs. bare King, bare K vs. K+N or K+B or K+N+N)

2. if the same position is reached in the game three times (with the same
side to move, and with the same moves available), the game is drawn

3. if there are 50 moves played (50 by White and 50 by Black) without a
capture being made and without a Pawn being moved, the game is drawn

Sometimes you get a position where one side is giving a whole string of
checks, which the opponent cannot get out of. This is sometimes called a draw
by 'perpetual check', but it is really a draw by agreement, as you know that
soon you will wither have a draw by three-fold repetition or by the 5-move
rule.

If you have lost lots of pieces, and you know your opponent will checkmate
you in the end, you are allowed to give up. In chess, we say
resign . It is sometimes good manners to resign
rather than waste time watching your opponent plonk through another 30 moves
where you cannot do anything.

If you touch a piece, you must move it. If you
move it and let go of it, the move cannot be taken
back.

Resigning and "touch-move" are in the rules, but there are other bits of
good manners that I advise you to practise.

Because of the touch-move rule, some players pick up a piece, and wave it
around, still thinking where to put it. Even worse, when they put it down,
they may hang on to it, having one last look around before letting go. This
is dreadful, really - neither you nor your opponent will be able to see the
board properly, and it can be off-putting. Always pick up a piece only
when you know where you are going to put it down, and just move it there, and
let go

Always try to put pieces in the middle of the squares . If you
really want to touch a piece but don't want to move it, you should say "
I adjust " before you touch it. Again, chessplayers use the French,
" j'adoube

Shake hands before you start, and after the game. Don't talk to
youropponent during the game , except to say "check" or
"checkmate" or "I resign" (or "good move"). Remain quiet and still when
seated at the board.

Don't talk to other people during the game - even if it's about
the weather, it might look like you are getting advice!

We call the first few moves, when each player is getting their pieces off
the back row and into play, the opening . In the
opening, you should get all your pieces out quickly, and try to control the
centre.

The next phase of the battle is the middlegame ,
where the pieces are out and fighting. Keep control of the centre, try and
win your opponent's pieces (for noything or for good exchanges), and try and
checkmate the King by attacking it.

The last phase is the endgame . The endgame is
when many pieces have been exchanged, and neither side can hope to force
checkmate with their pieces. Instead, the players try to promote their Pawns,
so that they can again start an attack on the opponent's King.

Practise playing against your friends , and try to play as many different
players as you can - especially ones better than you. Also, you can practise
playing against a computer. These days you can also play against players on
the Internet.

As well as playing whole games, also

practise parts of games

. Try finishing your opponent off with 2 Queens and a King against their
King. How many moves did they survive? Right, now swap, and see if you can
last longer! When you both get the hang of this, try just one Queen, then two
Rooks, then just one Rook.

One of the most important things is to

get your eye in

for all the captures and tricks and traps, which chessplayers call
tactics . You will pick this up through playing, but you can improve
your chess vision by